BROOKFIELD—State Senator Stephen Harding, Senate Republican Leader, is running for re-election to the state’s 30th Senatorial District. Harding, who is completing his first term in the senate, served Brookfield in various capacities over the years as a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals and the Board of Education.
His opponent, Justin Potter of Kent, is frank in his support of women’s reproductive rights, but Harding voted against Connecticut’s reproductive health bill in 2022. Harding said he supported Roe v. Wade, which protected a woman’s right to choose up to viability until it was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022. He said he objected to the 2022 Connecticut bill because it would have made it expanded “asphyxiation abortions,” a provision eliminated from the final version.
Currently, he says, “One of my proudest accomplishments was to work in a bipartisan manner to help ensure that the Maternity Ward at Sharon Hospital remains open, and I will continue to make sure that it stays open. This has been a top concern in the Northwest corner.”
Harding first ran because he felt he could “reduce the measures that continue to drive up costs for all Connecticut residents.”
An attorney, he graduated from Albertus Magnus College and attended New York Law School.